Judgment (Rule 40)

Judgment of the Tribunal on an application by the defendant, EWS, that the Tribunal reject parts of the claim pursuant to rule 40 of the Tribunal Rules.

EWS provided coal haulage services to the Claimant, ECSL. ECSL alleged that it has been overcharged for coal haulage on certain rail routes. It relied on a decision of the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) that EWS had abused its dominant position in the market for coal haulage in Great Britain. The ORR had found that EWS had pursued, without objective justification, selective and discriminatory pricing practices that placed ECSL at a competitive disadvantage.

EWS argued that the Tribunal did not have jurisdiction to hear the overcharge claims. The Tribunal found that ECSL was entitled to advance a claim for an overcharge based on the premise that the lower prices that EWS offered to other customers should also have been offered to ECSL but that the price discrimination as established in the ORR Decision was limited to a particular period in time. Applying these findings to the claim as pleaded, the Tribunal rejected part of the overcharge claim but allowed part of the claim to stand.

This is an unofficial summary prepared by the Registry of the Competition Appeal Tribunal.